The Traveler Chronicles: Book 1
by Flygrrl
Summary: Angela's life was always average. When she crashes her bike into a mysterious blue box, her life makes a sudden change for the extraordinary, and she wouldn't have it any other way.
1. Chapter 1 Part 1

Sometimes in life, changes are obvious. Entering or leaving relationships, college graduations, riding your bike into a british police box, the list goes on. I'm not joking, about that last one. That actually happened and it broke my heart.

The day it happened was pretty normal. It was a warm May day and I was on my way home from the dentist. I was mildly irritated because I'd shredded my earbuds but otherwise was in a pleasant mood. At least I was almost home, then I could relax and play video games. Luck was decidedly against me today, though, as I slowly rode down a hill. Instead of straightening out like I needed to, the bike decided to turn the other direction and run me into a blue wall. I flew headfirst into the wall then fell sideways.

"What the hell?" I muttered to myself as I rubbed my head. There was a creak near me and I heard a girl's voice call out, "Doctor, I think we hit someone!" The creak came again, then footsteps toward me.

"Are you okay?" The girl asked from above me. I looked up and saw a pretty blonde girl looking worriedly at me. She held out her hand to help me up.

"Uh, yeah, just a bump. No problem." I touched my forehead and flinched when my fingers made contact. That was going to bruise like a _bitch_. I took her hand and started to stand up, but suddenly there was an intense pounding in my head. I gasped and started to fall, but the blonde girl caught me. As the pounding grew worse, the girl called out to the doctor she'd spoken to earlier. A tall, slender man came into view then darkness consumed me.

I woke up what felt like seconds later, though my surroundings had completely changed. I was lying on a small row of cushioned benches. I moved to sit up and pain flashed through my head.

"Careful. The Doctor says you have a concussion." The pretty blonde girl from before said, rushing over the help me sit up. I looked around the room we were in and stared in shock and awe. It was the strangest room I'd ever been in and it took a moment to fully process.

"Where are we?" I whispered so quietly I'm sure the girl had trouble hearing me.

"We're in the TARDIS. It's a time machine." She explained gently. I stared at her in surprise before looking around again.

"Like Back to the Future?" I asked, frowning.

"Kind of? I never saw that movie."

"Me neither. Never had the chance…" I trailed off, "Where's that doctor guy?"

"Probably reading up on human stuff. I think it's been awhile since he's dealt with concussions."

"This would have been avoided had you been wearing a helmet." A gruff voice came from behind the girl.

"Dude, it's hot as fuck out. My hair's gonna look like shit without it being soaked through with sweat." I said with a snort. I leaned past the girl and finally got a good look at him. Strangely enough, he reminded me a bit of my dad, though with darker hair and better teeth. He opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by my phone chirping.

"Oh, sorry, I thought I had that on vibrate." I said, pulling my phone out of my back pocket. Just an email. Lame.

"Okay, so time machine, yeah? That's cool. Can we go somewhere?" I asked, shoving my phone into my pocket.

"Nope, I've got to take Rose home." The man said, moving to the console near me. I pouted and looked at the girl (Rose?) who turned to the man.

"Oh come on, Doctor, it couldn't hurt. Besides, we owe her." Rose pleaded.

"Pleeeeease, Doctor?" I begged, pulling my best puppy dog eyes. The Doctor glanced at me and sighed, "Just the one trip."

"Yay!" I cheered, hopping off the bench and almost falling over. Rose grabbed my arm and helped me steady myself.

"Sorry, I'm-" I started to apologize before the floor under me suddenly shifted and I fell.

"What the hell?" I yelled out, glaring at the Doctor. With a final jolt, everything stopped moving.

"What was that?" I asked in surprise.

"The TARDIS." Rose said with a cheeky grin. She popped up and ran out the doors, the Doctor and I trailing after her. The Doctor leaned against the TARDIS ( _holy shit it's a box what the fuck is a police box_ ) and I marvelled at our surroundings.

"How long have I been gone?" I vaguely heard Rose ask the Doctor.

"About twelve hours." He said and they both laughed a little. Rose mentioned something about her mum and she and the Doctor joked a bit as I slowly walked around the machine.

"Don't you disappear." Rose was saying as I stood in front of the doors. The Doctor chuckled and focused on me.

"Holy fuck. That big room is inside this tiny box?" I said incredulously.

"Yep."

"Holy fuck." I breathed. I opened the TARDIS door and poked my head in just to make sure I wasn't hallucinating. I shut the door and turned back to where the Doctor was, only to see that he'd walked over to a nearby post and was looking at a paper taped to it.

"What's that?" I asked, reaching over to smooth a corner so I could read it. CAN YOU HELP? Was emblazed across the top, above a picture of Rose. To the left of the picture was information about her and when she'd gone missing and at the bottom was a phone number.

"Oh my god." I exclaimed. The Doctor shot off toward where Rose went, with me right on his trail. We ran up countless steps and into an apartment. I lingered in the doorway, desperately trying to catch my breath as the Doctor ran up to Rose and a crying woman, who was holding tightly onto her.

"It's not twelve hours, it's, uh, twelve months. You've been gone a whole year. Sorry." The Doctor said to Rose with a nervous laugh.

"The hours I've sat here! Days and weeks and months, all on my own! And where were you? Travelling! What the hell does that mean, travelling? That's no sort of answer!" Rose's mom, Jackie, raved, "You ask her, she won't tell me. That's all she says, travelling." She said, turning to the police officer sitting on the couch. The Doctor and I leaned against the table and watched as she paced around. _That is a very animated woman._

"Well that's what I've been doing." Rose tried to explain.

"Well your passport's still in the drawer. It's just been one lie after another." Jackie accused.

"I meant to phone, I really did, I just… forgot." Rose said, avoiding eye contact with her mother.

"What, for a year? You forgot for a year? And I am left sitting here? I just don't believe you." She moved to the couch then turned around, "Why won't you tell me where you've been?"

"Actually, that's my fault," The Doctor finally spoke up, "I sort of employed Rose as my companion."

"When you say companion, is this a sexual relationship?" The officer jumped in.

"No." Rose and the Doctor said in unison as I stared in the officer in shock. Rose was my age according to her flyers and I was surprised that he'd say that.

"Then what is it?" Jackie exclaimed angrily as she got in the Doctor's face, "Cuz you, you waltz in here, all charm and smiles, and the next thing that I know, she vanishes off the face of the Earth! And you've got another girl who's parents are probably worried sick about her. How old are you? 40? 45? What, did you find them on the internet? Did you go online and pretend you're a doctor?" She accused.

"Well, I am a doctor!" He defended himself.

"Prove it. Stitch this, mate." Jackie said before winding up and slapping the Doctor across the face. My hands flew over my mouth. The officer jumped up in case Jackie swung again but Rose just rolled her eyes. Eventually they managed to calm Jackie down and the officer left. As the door shut behind him Rose wrapped her mother in another hug.

"Did you think about me at all?" Jackie tearfully asked Rose. Rose pulled away and looked her mother in the face.

"I did, all the time, but…" Rose said, equally tearful.

"One phone call. Just to know that you're alive." Jackie said almost pleadingly. Rose sniffled and said, "I'm sorry, I really am."

"But do you know what terrifies me, is that you still can't say. Where were you, Rose? What can be so bad that you can't tell me, sweetheart? Where were you?" Jackie sobbed. Rose just sniffed and smiled sadly.

"Are you alright?" The Doctor asked from beside me, "You've been wheezing."

"Oh. Yeah, just asthma. I forgot to grab my inhaler before we came dashing in here." I said jokingly. The Doctor sighed but moved on to a different topic.

* * *

"Mum wondered where you went." Rose said behind me. I jumped and almost dropped my phone.

"Just wanted to check out the view. I've never been to London before." I said, sitting on the rooftop. Rose sat next to me and stared curiously at my phone.

"What's that?" She asked, gesturing to it.

"My phone. Not the most recent model, but it works and it was free." I said, handing it to her. She turned it over in her hands and inspected the black screen and blue plastic back.

"It's a smartphone. The screen responds when you touch it." I explained. I leaned over and unlocked my phone for her

"Those are apps-" I started to say before being cut off by the door to the stairs opening and the Doctor strolling toward us.

"Hey." I greeted him.

"How's your head?" He asked.

"Fine. Mild pounding, but it'll go away. I can handle a small headache." I said with a small smile.

"You haven't introduced yourself yet." The Doctor pointed out.

"Huh, I haven't. To be fair, what with the concussion and Rose's mom, I haven't been able to. I'm Angela."

"I can't believe my mum slapped you." Rose suddenly spoke up, handing my phone back to me.

"900 years of time and space and I've never been slapped by someone's mother." The Doctor said and the three of us laughed.

"Your face." Rose said, giggling.

"It hurt!" The Doctor said, looking a bit hurt. I laughed more at his expression.

"You're so gay." Rose laughed. My mood immediately dropped.

"Hey now, that's not cool." I said with a frown.

"Sorry." Rose said to me before looking at the Doctor again, "When you say 900 years…"

"That's my age."

"Really?" I asked, shocked.

"You're 900 years." Rose seemed like she almost didn't believe him.

"Yeah." The Doctor affirmed.

"My mum was right, that is one hell of an age gap." Rose said with a heavy exhale before sighing, "I can't do that to her again."

"Well she can't come with us. I don't do families." The Doctor said. I opened my mouth to make a joke about being slapped when all of a sudden something roared overhead. We all dropped into a crouch on the roof beneath where Rose and I had been sitting and stared at the spaceship that flew overhead, letting out a sound like a foghorn. We watched as it flew over London, ripping through two of the faces of Big Ben and crashing into the Thames.

"What the actual fuck." I deadpanned.

"Oh that's not fair." Rose said. The Doctor turned to us and laughed before grabbing Rose's hand. Rose grabbed my hand and the three of us sprinted down the stairs and toward the crash. (I say we sprinted. When we reached the ground I had to stop to catch my breath again and the Doctor had me climb on his back so I didn't slow us down.)

* * *

"It's blocked off." The Doctor said disappointingly as I slid off his back and moved to stand on his left.

"We're miles from the center. The city is gridlocked, the whole of London must be closing down." Rose said, panting and looking around.

"I know, I can't believe I'm here to see this. This is fantastic." The Doctor said excitedly. Rose and I stared at him in disbelief.

"Did you know this was going to happen?" She asked.

"Nope." He said cheerfully.

"Do you recognize the ship?" I asked.

"Nope."

"Do you know why it crashed?" She said

"Nope."

"Oh, I'm so glad I've got you." Rose said, turning back toward the blockade.

"I bet you are. This is what I travel for. To see history happening right in front of us." He said, still rather cheerful. It was starting to annoy me, to be honest. The running had only made my headache worse and I was getting rather irritable.

"Well, let's go a see it then," Rose said with a sigh, "Never mind the traffic, we've got the TARDIS."

"Sure, let's just go see the alien spaceship in our alien spaceship. That doesn't sound like a bad idea at all." I said sarcastically.

"Yeah, but it looks like a big, blue box. No one's going to notice." Rose said a bit deflated.

"You'd be surprised, an emergency like this. There'll be all kinds of people watching. Trust me, the TARDIS stays where it is." He said. Rose seemed disappointed but accepted it.

"Speaking of TARDIS, you wouldn't happen to have a magical pill that cures concussions, would you?" I asked, rubbing my head.

"Oh, here." He said turning to me pulling something out of his jacket. He pointed the small metallic thing at me and the end facing me lit up and buzzed. After a few seconds I noticed my headache disappeared. The Doctor turned it off and put it back in his inside pocket and grinned at me.

"What was that?" I asked.

"Sonic Screwdriver. Good for everything except wood. It doesn't do wood." He explained. I aahed and nodded as if that made sense to me, which it didn't.

"So history is happening and we're stuck here." Rose sighed.

"Yes, we are." The Doctor said, craning his neck.

"Well, we could do what everyone else does." Rose said, looking at the Doctor. He looked at her with a confused expression.

"We could watch it on TV." She suggested.

"As long as we don't run there, I'm fine with that." I said. The Doctor looked at the blockade again, looked at Rose, and agreed. We managed to get a cab back to where Rose lived, Powell Estate, and we were all silent on the ride there. Jackie had been pacing around the apartment and visible relaxed when we came in. She started chattering away about some friend of her to Rose as the Doctor and I made a beeline to the living room and the TV. The Doctor took the chair Rose sat in earlier. I perched on the arm and we watched the news intently. Rose sat on the far end of the couch and her mom bustled around the kitchen making tea. At one point a friend of Jackie's came in and sat at the table behind us. I heard her scolding Rose as Jackie left the kitchen, talking about the Doctor and Rose. I vaguely heard the doorbell ring as the reporters on the television talked about pulling a body from the wreckage. The Doctor raised his eyebrows and we leaned closer to the television, hoping to get a good look at the alien. Unfortunately, all we could see was a white sheet in the form of a body on a stretcher. I leaned back, disappointed, and looked around and the suddenly fuller apartment. I sighed and focused on the TV again, where the reporter was talking about the body being extraterrestrial and going to some mortuary.

The TV channel changed and I felt the Doctor move next to me. I looked over at him and saw him playfully fighting with a young kid over the remote. He managed to successfully get it away from the kid and turned the TV to the news station again.

"-Albion Hospital. We still don't know if it's alive or dead." The reporter was saying.

"It's face was covered, I think it's dead." I muttered, leaning back. The Doctor shooed the little boy away and focused on the news.

"They took the alien to Albion Hospital because the roads are closed." I told him. He nodded absentmindedly. I zoned out after a while, listening more to the conversations behind me than the news. I didn't notice the news talking about the Prime Minister disappearing, though I did notice when the Doctor got up. I immediately followed him out of the apartment.

"And where do you think you're going?" I heard Rose say behind me. We both turned around in surprise.

"Nowhere. It's just a bit human in there for me. History just happened and they're talking about where they can buy dodgy top-up cards for half price." The Doctor said. Rose didn't look like she believed him. I leaned against the wall and just watched them.

"I'm off on a wander, that's all." He said innocently.

"Right. There's a spaceship on the Thames, and you're just wandering." Rose said, still not buying it.

"Nothing to do with me. It's not an invasion. That's a genuine crash landing. Angle of descent, color of smoke, it was perfect." He explained.

"Usually whenever people say that, it ends up being faked." I said with a frown.

"Don't be ridiculous. It's fine." The Doctor said dismissively. I rolled my eyes and walked toward the stairs, needing some air. I could hear the Doctor talk about first contact and such to Rose as I walked away.

* * *

 _In case you couldn't tell, this is a self insert story. Angela isn't my real name, just one I decided to use. I don't own Doctor Who or it's characters, obviously, and I would greatly appreciate all reviews and criticisms, just don't insult me or my work. Thank you!_


	2. Chapter 1 Part 2

I could hear people partying outside of apartments as I exited the stair well. Several people had hung up signs welcoming the aliens to Earth. I thought it was silly, but whatever. Not my problem. I strode toward the TARDIS and tugged on the doors. Locked.

"Damn it." I murmured, resting my hand on the door. I could hear footsteps off to my left and saw the Doctor walking towards me. He raised an eyebrow at me but didn't say anything as I stepped aside to give him access to the door. He unlocked it and I followed him inside, shutting the door behind me. The Doctor ran to the console and started pulling levers and pressing buttons. The column in the middle started moving up and down and a whirring, groaning sound filled the room.

"Where are we going?" I asked, walking over to were he was bent over a small screen.

"You'll see." He said, running around the console, still pulling levers and hitting buttons. At one point he pulled out a rubber mallet and started carefully hitting a panel until the center column lit up. It was a bit fascinating to watch, in all honesty, though it was a bit funny when he gave the mallet a quick kiss.

(Leaving the TARDIS was a bit of a squeeze, though. The Doctor seemed to have parked in the smallest possible space without making it impossible to leave it.)

The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and used it to unlock the door. The buzz was surprisingly loud in the silence between us and I let out a small giggle when he shushed it. One more sonic and the door opened to a room of what looked like soldiers wearing fatigues and red berets. We all stared at each other for a few seconds before all the soldiers scrambled for their guns and aimed at us.

(Things I don't like: having a gun pointed at me.)

Before anyone could do anything else, a scream rang out.

"Defense Plan Delta! Come one, move! Move!" The Doctor called as he ran through them with me right behind him. The soldiers were right on our tail as we ran down a hallway into the mortuary. The Doctor stopped for a second to look around before spotting the woman who screamed, a young Asian doctor who was hiding behind a table.

"It's alive!" She gasped. I moved to her side as the Doctor turned to the soldiers, "Spread out, tell the perimeter it's a lock down."

"Oh my god, it's still alive." The woman whispered, shaking heavily. The Doctor came and crouched next to me, taking her hands. He turned to yell, "Do it!" at the soldiers before focusing on her again. The soldiers all rushed out of the room.

"I swear it was dead." The woman whispered.

"Coma, shock, hibernation, anything. What does it look like?" The Doctor asked. I looked around and grabbed the sheet that had probably covered the alien so I could wipe the blood off her forehead. There was a metallic clank from in front of me and the Doctor whirled around while I dropped into a crouch and watched over the table.

"It's still here." He realized. He stood up and backed toward the door, gesturing for the soldier outside to enter. The man crouched near the Asian doctor, who was looking around in what was probably fear. The Doctor moved around the table slowly, dropping to the floor when the metallic thing clanked again. He crawled to the end of the table on his hands and knees, being careful to not knock anything over. He peered around the table and I heard what sounded like a pig grunting.

"Hello." The Doctor said in a cheerful but quiet voice. The alien let out a loud squeal and ran out of the room.

"Don't shoot!" The Doctor ordered the soldier. The alien ran down the hall and the Doctor shot after it.

"Was that a pig!?" I yelled when he passed me, but he didn't answer. I groaned and ran after him and the alien. I saw the alien go around a corner, squealing all the while, and then heard a gunshot followed by silence. I rounded the corner moments after the Doctor did and saw the pig alien laying on the ground, dead.

"What did you do that for? It was scared." The Doctor yelled angrily. He and I crouched near the aliens body. The Doctor gave it a quick look before glaring at the soldiers.

"It was scared." The Doctor repeated, sadness joining the anger. The soldiers took a step back as the alien grunted.

"Don't worry, you're going to be alright." I whispered to the alien, running my hand over its head. The Doctor cradled the alien's head as it took its last breath. I shot the soldiers a glare as the Doctor pick up the alien's body and carried it back to the mortuary.

* * *

"I just assumed that's what aliens looked like, but you're saying that's an ordinary pig, from Earth." Dr. Sato said, clutching her clipboard to her chest. She was standing across from me, on the pig's right. The Doctor stood at its head and had his arms crossed.

"More like a mermaid. Victorian showmen used to draw the crowds by taking the skull of a cat, gluing it to a fish, and calling it a mermaid. Now someone's taken a pig, opened up its brain, stuck bits on, then they've strapped it into that ship, made it dive bomb. It must've been terrified. They've taken this animal and turned it into a joke." The Doctor explained, examining the pig with a dark expression that was reflected on my face as well.

"So it's a fake, a pretend, like the mermaid. But the technology augmenting its brain, it's like nothing on earth. It's alien. Alien are faking aliens." She said, staring at the pig in horror as we slipped out of the room. We went back to the TARDIS and our exit was as silent as our entrance. The engines shut down and the Doctor studied the screen on the console while I dug through my purse for some gum. I heard the doors creak open and saw Rose run up to the Doctor.

"Alright, I lied, I went and had a look. But the whole crash landing's a fake. I thought so. Just too perfect. I mean, hitting Big Ben? Come on. So I thought 'Let's go and have a look...'"

"My mum's here." Rose interrupted him. The doors creak again and I see Jackie and a black guy walk in. Jackie had both hands clasped over her mouth in shock and the guy just looked pissed.

"Oh, that's just what I need. Don't you dare make this place domestic." The Doctor said to Rose. Jackie continued to look around and the guy zeroed in on the Doctor.

"You ruined my life, Doctor." The black guy said. The Doctor turned around to face him. "They thought she was dead. I was a murder suspect because of you."

"See what I mean?" The Doctor said, turning to Rose, "Domestic!" The Doctor turned back to the console.

"I bet you don't even remember my name." The guy accused, taking a couple steps toward the Doctor.

"Ricky." The Doctor answered immediately, turning around. I could tell from his voice this guy was pissing him off.

"It's Mickey." The guy, Mickey, corrected angrily.

"No, it's Ricky." The Doctor argued.

"I think I know my own name." Mickey said angrily.

"You think you know your own name? How stupid are you?" the Doctor shot back. I let out a snort, followed by a laugh. Jackie turned to the doors as Mickey focused on me and said, "Who're you then?"

"Mum, don't! Don't go anywhere." She instructed the boys, "Don't start a fight." She ran out of the TARDIS after her mom.

"I'm Angela." I introduced myself. Rose ran back in and to the Doctor.

"That was a real spaceship?" She asked.

"Yep."

"So it was all a pack of lies. What is it then, are they invading?" She said, looking at the Doctor.

"Funny way to invade, putting the world on red alert." Mickey commented. The Doctor looked at him in surprise before focusing on the screen again. I finally pull my pack of gum out of my bag and join the other three at the console.

"Good point! So, what're they up to?" He studied the console intently.

"Well, they purposely landed a spaceship with a fake alien on the Thames, so maybe they're trying to scare everyone?" I suggested, popping a stick of gum into my mouth and offering another to Rose. She accepted it with a quiet thanks. The Doctor hummed in response to my question but didn't look up. Eventually I extracted myself from the group and leaned against the railing near the doors. I watched as the Doctor stepped away from the screen and pulled the floor grating up so he could access underneath. Mickey stepped over to talk to him more and Rose joined me against the railing.

"So how did you meet the Doctor?" I asked after a few heartbeats. She let out a small laugh and said, "He blew up my job."

"Damn, really?" I said after I got over the shock.

"Yeah. He also saved my life. I was almost attacked by a bunch of manikins. He grabbed my hand and I never looked back." She said with a shrug.

"What did you do? Before it went up in flames?" I asked.

"Retail." She answered with a wrinkle of her nose. I laughed and nodded.

"I get that feel. I work in fast food." I said, laughter still in my voice. A brief look of confusion crossed Rose's face but Mickey approached us before she could say anything.

"Some friend you've got." He muttered.

"He's winding you up." She said sympathetically. Mickey wouldn't meet her eyes, though.

"I am sorry." Rose said, taking a step forward.

"Okay." Mickey said, still not meeting her gaze.

"I am, though." She insisted. (I was still leaning against the railing and feeling very awkward.) Mickey played with the zipper on his jacket for a few seconds, the only other sounds being the Doctor working on the TARDIS.

"Everyday, I looked." Mickey finally said, looking at Rose, "On every street corner, where ever I went..." _Oh shit, this is super serious,_ I thought as I slipped around the console to the Doctor.

"So, Doctor Who, exactly?" I asked, squatting next to the hole in the floor.

"No one knows." He says, giving me a grin before focusing on what he was doing. I rolled my eyes and watched him as Rose and Mickey talked. I watched them and jumped when sparks showered over the Doctor.

"Got it! Ha ha!" The Doctor cheered. He climbed out of the floor and I helped him put the grate back in place.

"Patched in the radar, looped it back 12 hours," My stomach grumbled a bit, as if to remind me it had been over 12 hours since I'd eaten an actual meal, "so it'll follow the path of that space ship. Here we go." He focused on the screen and Rose moved to his side.

"Hold on." He frowned. The Doctor whacked the top of the screen a couple time, muttering, "Come on." The screen started beeping and he pointed at something on the screen. (I couldn't see it because his big stupid hand was blocking it.)

"That's the spaceship, on it's way to Earth, see?" He said, moving his hand so I could get a look at a dot moving into a larger circle along a curved line.

"Except, hold on..." The dot on the screen reversed it's course and moved away from the circle, "See, the space ship did a slingshot round the Earth before it landed."

"What does that mean?" Rose asked as I leaned it.

"It came from Earth." I said, looking up at the Doctor. He bent his knees slightly to be closer to eye level to Rose and I.

"Exactly. Whoever those aliens are, they haven't just arrived. They've been here for a while." He said, glancing between us before looking at the image on the screen, "Question is, what've they been doing?" He straightened up, still watching the screen.

"Getting into position? They purposely set the entire world on red alert, so they have to have some big plan." I suggested. The Doctor only frowned and turned to the news.

"How many channels you get?" Mickey asked, joining the group finally and forcing his head between Rose's and the Doctor's. The Doctor stepped back and crossed his arms, letting Mickey in closer. Rose stepped to the side but kept one hand on the console

"All the basic packages." The Doctor answered curtly.

"You get sports channels?" Mickey asked, looking up at the Doctor.

"Yes, I get the football." The Doctor sighed. Something gave me the distinct feeling the Doctor didn't really like Mickey. Maybe it was his constant mocking.

"Hold on. I know that lot." The Doctor said, pointing on the screen as a group of people crossed it.

"... but it's looking likely that the government is bringing in alien specialists, those people who've devoted their entire lives to studying outer space." A female reporter was saying.

"UNIT. United Intelligence Task-force. Good people." The Doctor identified.

"Oh yeah, I've heard of them. They tried to recruit my friend's dad. He turned them down though, didn't want to spend so much time away from family." I said conversationally.

"How'd you know them?" Rose asked, moving closer as Mickey stepped away.

"Cuz he's worked for them." Mickey answered her. All of us looked at him. Rose and the Doctor seemed a bit surprised but I just gave him an irritated glance. His jealous attitude was starting to drive me up a wall.

"Oh yeah. Don't think I sat on my backside for 12 months. I read up on you." He said, staring and gesturing at the Doctor accusingly, "You look deep enough on the internet or in the history books, and there's his name. Followed by a list of the dead."

"Oh yes. So scary." I muttered.

"That's nice. Good boy, Ricky." The Doctor said sarcastically.

"If you know them, why don't you go and help?" Rose asked, looking up at the Doctor.

"They wouldn't recognize me. I've changed a lot since the old days." The Doctor replied, moving past me to use the console on my right. Rose and I watched him and Mickey turned away, probably irritated that we hadn't taken him seriously.

"Beside, the world's on a knife edge. There's aliens out there and fake aliens wanna keep this alien out of the mix." He said, pointing at himself to emphasis _this alien._

"I'm going undercover." He concluded, the console letting out a bell-like ding.

"And, uh, better keep the TARDIS out of sight. Ricky! You've got a car, you can do some driving." He added, leading us all out of the TARDIS.

"Where to?" Mickey asked, very confused.

"The roads have cleared. Let's go and have a look at that space ship." The Doctor turned and said to Mickey at the doors before leaving the TARDIS. We hadn't taken more than a few steps before a helicopter flew overhead, pointing its spotlight on us.

"Do not move! Step away from the box!" A man called through a megaphone as a siren rang out.

"Raise your hands above your head!" He ordered. Military vehicles drove onto the lot we were parked in and soldiers streamed out and surrounded us. Mickey panicked and ran off, soldiers hot on his tail. Through them, I could see Jackie Tyler exit the estate. She called out to Rose and tried to run to her but soldiers held her back.

"Raise your hands above your head! You are under arrest!" The man in the helicopter called out. The Doctor, Rose, and I held up our hands and the Doctor called out, "Take me to your leader!" with a wide grin. Jackie was still calling out to Rose, who was watching the helicopter. The three of us were led to a cop car, which we were ordered to enter. The Doctor climbed in first, with me in the middle and Rose in last.

"I've never been arrested before. My mom would flip her shit." I murmured.

"If I knew being arrested was like this, I would've done it years ago." Rose joked.

"We're not being arrested, we're being escorted." The Doctor corrected with a hint of excitement in his tone.

"Where to?" Rose asked, turning to the Doctor and accidentally digging her knee into my thigh.

"Where do you think? Downing Street." The Doctor said with a laugh.

"You're kidding." Rose said, smiling and laughing too.

"What's on Downing Street?" I asked, confused by their excitement.

"It's where the Prime Minister lives. Imagine getting an armed escort to the White House." The Doctor answered, still grinning like a kid. I let out a small laugh at the idea of it.

"That would be pretty cool." I admitted, pulling out my phone so I could google the current prime minister. Unfortunately, I had no service. Like, at all. Not even for phone calls. I let out a small growl as I messed around in my settings to see if that would do anything, but it didn't.

"Oh, here." The Doctor said, pulling my phone out of my hand and sonicing it. When he gave it back, I saw I had full bars and data.

"Thanks." I said in surprise as I opened my mobile browser. Rose and the Doctor kept giggle about going to Downing street as I googled the prime Minister. Tony Blair, from 1997 to 2007. Youngest PM at 43, supported Bush in the War on Terror. _Of course he did._ I thought to myself as I scanned his Wikipedia page. Killed in 2006 under unknown circumstances.

"Like it said on the news, they've been gathering experts in alien knowledge. And who's the biggest expert of the lot?' The Doctor was saying as I stowed my phone in the side pocket of my shorts.

"Patrick Moore?" Rose said hesitantly.

"Apart from him." The Doctor said in an almost insulted tone.

"Certainly not the alien on his way to Downing Street." I said sarcastically, giving the Doctor a grin.

"Exactly. Oh, I'm telling you, Lloyd George, he used to drink me under the table. Who's the prime minister know?" He asked, looking at Rose.

"How should I know? I missed a year." Rose said, turning to look out the window.

"Tony Blair. He actually dies this year." I answered, leaning forward to look out the windshield. When we arrived at Downing St., there were paparazzi everywhere, snapping pictures of us as we exited the car. The Doctor waved at the reporters, who were all calling out questions for him. Rose seemed a bit starstruck at my side and I was nervously playing with the hem of my shirt.

"Oh my god." Rose said with a grin as we followed the Doctor inside the building we'd pulled up in front of. We're led into a room full of mingling people and told to wait there.

"Oh god." I muttered, shrinking back so I was hidden behind the Doctor and Rose. I noticed a woman in a light pink blazer and black skirt introduce herself to the guard at the door and wander about the room. Before I could get a better look at her, though, a man entered the room from another door.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, can we convene? Quick as we can, please. It's this way on the right and can I remind you ID cards are to be worn at all times." He called out, holding up what was probably an ID card so everyone could see what he was talking about. The Doctor, Rose, and I were walking toward the door as the man approached up.

" Here's your ID card." He said, handing the one he'd held up to the Doctor. He noticed Rose and I and frowned.

"I'm sorry, your companions don't have clearance." He said apologetically.

"I don't go anywhere with out them." The Doctor declared while he attached his card to his leather jacket.

"You're the Code Nine, not them. I'm sorry, Doctor." The explained, "It's, uh, Doctor, isn't it? They'll have to stay outside."

"They're staying with me." The Doctor insisted.

"Look, even I don't have clearance to go in there. I can't let them in and that's a fact." The man was adamant.

"That's alright, you go." Rose said, turning to the Doctor.

"Excuse me. Are you the Doctor?" The woman I'd noticed earlier interrupted.

"Sure?" The Doctor said, turning to Rose.

"Not now. We're busy. Can't you go home?" The man asked, clearly irritated.

"I just need a word, in private!" The woman insisted.

"You haven't got clearance, now leave it!" The man said angrily before turning to Rose and I. The Doctor slipped past us, following the thinning trail of people.

"I'm gonna have to leave you with security." The man said, leading us there with a hand on Rose's back.

"It's alright." The woman said with a sigh, "I'll look after them. Let me be of some use." The woman turned to us and gestured ahead of herself.

"Walk with me." She said as we walked out of the room, back the way we'd came in, "Just keep walking. That's right, don't look round." She almost commanded as Rose looked back at the man. Her head snapped back to the woman.

"Harriet Jones, MP Flydale North." She introduced herself.

"Rose Tyler." Rose replied.

"Angela." I muttered, looking down a soldier-filled hallway as we passed it. Something about this meeting was giving me a bad feeling.

* * *

"This friend of yours, he's an expert, is that right?" Harriet asked when we were alone, near a staircase in the entry hall, "He- he know about aliens?" Fear seemed to over take her.

"Why do you want to know?" Rose asked, keeping her guard up. I eyed Harriet as she started to sob. We both turned to her as tears started falling, Rose holding onto her upper arms and me rubbing her back as she sobbed into her hands.

"What's wrong, Harriet?" I asked in a low, soothing voice. She shook her head and led us upstairs into a conference room, where she was able to compose herself long enough to grab something from the closet on the right of the doors.

"There were these, these alien. They killed a man and turned the body into a suit, a disguise for the thing inside!" Harriet said, sobbing.

"It's alright." I said soothingly, rubbing her back again.

"We believe you." Rose said reassuringly, "It's, it's alien." Rose turned back to the skin suit on the table before walking around the table, looking around.

"They must have some serious technology behind this. If we could find it, we could use it!" She said, checking the walls and feeling under tables and drawers. She opened up a cabinet and jumped back with a small scream as a body fell out.

"Oh my god!" I exclaimed, running around the table. Harriet was right behind me and we circled the body of a man, unsure as to what to do.

"Oh my god, is that-" Rose was interrupted by the man from before.

"Harriet, for god's sake! This has gone beyond a joke" He was saying angrily as he entered the room, "You cannot just wander..." He stopped a few feet from us when he saw the body.

"Oh my god." He breathed, "That's the Prime Minister."

"What do we do?" I asked, tearing my eyes from the Prime Minister to him. _Unknown circumstances my ass,_ I thought, _He was killed by fucking aliens!_

"Oh." A woman's voice came from the doorway. We all turned to look as a short, heavy set woman walked in from the dark offices outside.

"Has someone been naughty?" She said tauntingly. She shut the door behind her and Harriet pulled Rose and I behind her.

"But that's not possible. He left this morning. The Prime Minister left Downing Street, he was driven away." The man insisted.

"And who told you that?" The woman said with a serious expression, walking toward us.

"Hmm? Me." She said, dropping her purse and smiling. She moved her bangs to the side and grabbed a zipper that was set into her forehead. I watched in horror as she unzipped her head and started to pull her skin off her body like a tight pair of pants. She sighed in relief when the skin was at here waist and she could stretch her arms and hands. The skin suit slipped off her easily and our horror only grew as she rose to her full height. She was easily 7 feet tall, though she was probably taller than that, and had light green skin and large, pure black eyes. A small part of me, a part that wasn't affected by my fear, noted that in any other circumstances she would have been a bit adorable. You know, without the giant claws and menacing stature. She gave a raspy laugh before letting out an inhuman screech and grabbing the man by his neck. She forced him up the wall and laughed as he slapped at her arm and gasped for air. Suddenly, I wasn't staring at an alien killing a man. Instead, I saw the room the Doctor was in. Everyone was being electrocuted except for an alien like the one in the conference room and a large man, who I could only assume was also and alien. The man held what looked like a remote in his hand and he and the alien were laughing as everyone died.

* * *

 _So, super dramatic way to end the chapter, also an introduction to a new power. It's supposed to work a bit like Tim Latimer's in Human Nature/Family of Blood, except it's the present and not the future.  
_ _Took me longer to write this chapter than I'd wanted, lol. I meant to have this posted yesterday but life got in the way and all that fun stuff. Well, onto the next chapter and I'll see you guys next week!_


	3. Chapter 2 Part 1

I could only watch in horror as everyone in the room was electrocuted, excluding an alien standing in the front of the group and a large man sitting next to them. I could see an empty skin suit at the alien's feet and common sense told me the large man was probably another alien.

The Doctor was on his knees, head thrown back as he tried to not scream out in pain like many of the other people. He struggled to grab at something on his chest, before yanking his name tag off. Electricity pulsed in a halo around his hand and up his arm as the Doctor shakily stood up.

"Deadly to humans, maybe." He said, staring at the tag and taking a few forceful steps forward before pushing the tag into the collar at the alien's neck. The alien and the man fell to the ground shrieking. I blinked and suddenly I was in the conference room again. The female-sounding alien shriek as electricity coursed over her, dropping the body of the man. Rose grabbed Harriet's hand and ran past the screaming alien, with me close behind.

"Did you see that?" I asked as we ran through the office-like entry way.

"See what?" Rose called back to me.

"No, wait! They're still in there! The Emergency Protocols, we need them!" Harriet interrupted before running back the way we came. I sighed and Rose and I ran after her. We had barely made it through the doorway when we saw the un-electrified alien running at us. We backpedaled and ran down a hall and through a room. I could have sworn I felt wood shards scratch my neck as the alien burst through a door moments after I shut it, but that would have to wait until later. We ran past the elevator and Rose desperately tried to open a locked door across from it. I heard the elevator ding and turned to see the Doctor standing inside it.

"Hello!" He said cheerfully, as if there wasn't a murderous alien standing between us. Harriet tugged on Rose's arm to get her attention as we stared at him.

"Hi." I said back confusedly. The Doctor soniced the elevator panel and the doors closed with a cheery ding as he rose up another level. Harriet, Rose, and I ran through the open doorway next to us as the alien snarled. We entered a small room with two couches facing each other and Rose immediately tried to open the only other way out, which was locked.

"Hide!" She cried out. The three of us scattered, with Rose hiding behind a small table near a couch and Harriet behind a partition near the windows. I hid behind a heavy curtain near Rose and prayed the alien couldn't see my shoes. (Galaxy print vans, brand new.) The alien chose that moment to enter the room, carefully opening the door instead of smashing through. If I had been the alien, I would have smashed through. Much scarier and bigger chance of the prey revealing themselves.

"Ooh, such fun." The alien cooed, "Little human children, where are you?" I closed my eyes and pressed my hands to my mouth to cover up my panting.

"Sweet little human kins, come to me. Let me kiss you better." When the alien's back was turned, Rose jumped up and hid behind the other curtain. Our eyes met and I could see fear in her eyes, an intense fear that I'm sure matched mine.

"Kiss you with my big, green lips." The alien let out a hiss and my eyes clenched shut again as I bit down a whimper. Lord, I did not need this today. When I opened my eyes, I was looking at the Doctor, hidden behind a plinth holding a vase.

"We'll keep this floor quarantined as our last hunting ground before the final phase." A male-sounding alien was saying as the two of them walked past the Doctor. I froze as they approached me, but they didn't seem to see me. I turned to watch them as they walked on and then looked down, biting back a scream as I realized I couldn't see my body. What on Earth? I looked at the Doctor, who was leaning out of his hiding spot. Watching him, I suddenly realized the other two had walked into the room where Rose, Harriet, and I were hiding. Oh, _fuck_. I blinked furiously but couldn't seem to go back into my body.

"My brothers." The female alien said as the other two walked in.

"Happy hunting" One of the males asked.

"It's wonderful. The more you prolong it, the more they stink."

"Sweat and fear." The other male said.

"I can smell an old girl. Stale perfume and brittle bones." The first male said.

"And two ripe youngsters, all hormones and adrenaline. Fresh enough to bend before they snap" The female said, walking over to where Rose was hidden and pulling back the curtain. Rose let out a scream and I snapped back into my body, cringing away from the alien.

"No!" Harriet yelled, stepping out of her hiding spot and holding up her arms.

"Take me first, take me!" She cried out. Suddenly, the door burst open and the Doctor ran in holding a fire extinguisher. He sprayed the two aliens near him, distracting the third so Rose and I could yank the curtains and the rod over her head.

"Out! With me!" The Doctor yelled to us. Rose, Harriet, and I ran behind the Doctor as he sprayed the aliens again.

"Who the hell are you?" He directed at Harriet.

"Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North." She said.

"Nice to meet you."

"Likewise." The Doctor sprayed again and us girls grabbed hands and ran from the room, the Doctor setting down the extinguisher and shutting the door behind us.

"We need to get to the cabinet rooms." The Doctor said hurriedly as we ran behind him.

"The Emergency Protocols are in there. They give instructions for aliens." Harriet added.

"Harriet Jones, I like you."

"I think I like you too."

"Who doesn't?" I mutter as I glanced over my shoulder. No one following us yet, but I could hear them close by. I focused on taking deep breaths as I sped up to match the Doctor's speed. _Stupid tall people._ I thought desperately. I nearly ran into Rose as they all stopped at a locked door. She caught me and held me upright as I wheezed and tried to catch my breath. She led me through the door we had stopped in front of and I shut it behind us. Harriet grabbed a red briefcase, which was sitting on the table. I sank into and chair and the Doctor, with a muttered _shit_ , grabbed a decanter of alcohol. (If I had to guess what it was, I'd probably say whiskey.) Harriet and Rose stood behind the Doctor, blocking my view of the aliens, not that I was complaining.

"One more move and my sonic device will triplicate the flammability of this alcohol. Woof, we all go up. So back off." He threatened. One of the aliens snarled, but I didn't hear anymore movement.

"Right then, question time. Who exactly are the Slitheen?" _The what now?_

"They're aliens." Harriet said.

"Yes, I got that, thanks." The Doctor said to her.

"Who are you, if not human?" A male alien asked.

"Who's not human?" Harriet questioned.

"He's not human." Rose answered her.

"He's not human?" Harriet said, turning to Rose.

"Could I get a bit of hush?" The Doctor said irritably, turning to Harriet again.

"Sorry."

"So, what's the plan?" The Doctor

"But he's got a northern accent." Harriet said to Rose.

"Lots of planet have a north." Rose explained.

"I said hush." The Doctor said, turning back once again to Harriet before addressing the aliens again, "Come on!" He held up the decanter again, "You've got a space ship hidden in the North Sea, it's transmitting a signal. You've murdered your way to the top of government. What for? Invasion?"

"Why would we invade this godforsaken rock?" The other male shot back.

"Then something's brought the Slitheen race here. What is it?" The Doctor asked.

"The Slitheen race?" The other male questioned.

"Slitheen is not our species, it's our surname." The other male corrected, "Jocassa Fel Fotch Pasameer-Day Slitheen at your service."

"So you're family"

"A family business."

"Then you're out to make a profit. How can you do that on a godforsaken rock?" The Doctor asked.

"Nuclear power?" I suggested. The three of them turned to look at me.

"The ships in Mass Effect are run on nuclear power, I think. It makes sense. It's cheap to make and very powerful." I said with a shrug. The Doctor looked a bit impressed but I think I lost Rose and Harriet when I said Mass Effect.

"Uh, excuse me," A male alien interrupted, "Your device with do what? Triplicate the flammability?"

"Is that what I said?" The Doctor asked.

"You're making it up." The alien accused.

"Oh, well. Nice try." The Doctor said, looking down and back up, "Harriet, have a drink. I think you're going to need it." He said, holding the bottle out to her without turning.

"You pass it to the left first." She told him. He apologized and handed it to Rose, who thanked him. At this point, my lungs had calmed down a reasonable amount and I only wheezed slightly when I inhaled, so I stood up and hovered next to Rose.

"Now we can end this hunt with a slaughter." The male alien on the left said, tapping his claws together menacingly. The Doctor only shifted his weight and crossed his arms.

"Don't you think we should run?" Rose suggested.

"Fascinating history, Downing Street." The Doctor said, ignoring Rose, "2,000 years ago, this was marshland. 1730, it was occupied by a Mr. Chicken. He was a nice man. 1796, this was the Cabinet Room."

"As opposed to the Cupboard Room?" I joked to Rose. She cracked a smile as the Doctor continued with his oh so fascinating history lesson.

"If the Cabinet's in session and in danger, these are about the four most safest wall in the whole of Great Britain. End of lesson." He said, leaning over and pushing a button on the wall by the door. There was a metallic screech as steel panels blocked out the windows and doors.

"Installed in 1991. Three inches of steel lining every single wall. They'll never get in." He explained to us.

"And how do we get out?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. The Doctor looked around before nodding, "Ah."

"Lovely." I muttered as I flopped back into my chair, "I am currently trapped in the Cabinet Room of 10 Downing Street 10 years in the past. My cell phone is half dead, my earbuds are shredded and lying abandoned in the middle of the street, and I haven't eaten today." Rose offered me the decanter, which I accepted and chugged from. I was not dealing with this shit sober. I set the decanter on the table when I was done with it and sighed.

"Your mum's probably panicking. You should call her." I told Rose. The Doctor was pacing the room, probably trying to think of some brilliant plan that would save the day, and Harriet was going through the emergency protocols. The Doctor stopped when he reached the man from earlier, dead on the ground. The Doctor let out a sigh and grabbed him under his arms, pulling him around the table.

"What was his name?" The Doctor asked us as he pulled the man into the large closet.

"Who?" Harriet said absently.

"The, uh, secretary, or whatever he was called." Harriet stood up and walked to outside the closet.

"I don't know. I talked to him. I brought him a cup of coffee." She turned and walked back to her seat, "I never asked his name." I stood up and walked into the closet as the Doctor crossed the man's arms over his body.

"Sorry." I heard the Doctor say to him.

"It's not your fault." I said to the Doctor as I dropped to my knee and patted the man's pocket, pulling out his wallet. Indra Ganesh, his ID said. I sighed sadly and checked for cash. I hated doing this but God knows I needed local currency here. Inside were two twenty pound notes and a five. I pocketed the twenties, leaving the five for him just in case.

"Right, what have we got? Any terminals, anything?" The Doctor was saying when I left the closet.

"Nope, this place is antique." Rose said, searching under the drawer of a small side table, "What I don't get, is when they killed the Prime Minister, why didn't they use him as a disguise?" She asked, turning to the Doctor, who was sonicing a window.

"He's too slim. They're big old beasts. They need to fit inside big humans." The Doctor said, moving to the next window.

"But the Slitheen are about eight feet. How do they squeeze inside?"

"That's the device around their necks," Next window. "Compression field, literally shrinks them down a bit. That's why there's all that gas. It's a big exchange."

"Wish I had a compression field. I could fit a size smaller." Rose muttered as she sat down.

"Excuse me, people are dead! This is no time for making jokes." Harriet said, a bit scandalized.

"It's a coping mechanism, Harriet. If we weren't cracking jokes I'd be having a meltdown." I said with a roll of my eyes.

"You get used to this stuff when you're friends with him." Rose added.

"Well that's a strange friendship." Harriet said.

"Harriet Jones. I've heard that name before. Harriet Jones. You're not famous for anything, are you?" The Doctor said, stopping near where Harriet was sitting. She let out a self-depreciating laugh.

"Oh! Hardly!" She said.

"Rings a bell. Harriet Jones..." He trailed off. I thought on it for a second before realizing where I'd read it.

"Doctor! Remember what I was talking about earlier, with Wikipedia?" I said. He just hummed and Harriet pulled us back on track.

"The protocols are redundant. They list the people who could help and they're all dead downstairs."

"Hasn't it got, like, defense codes and things?" Rose asked, jumping up and walking over to Harriet, "Couldn't we just launch a nuclear bomb at them?" Harriet and I looked at Rose in horror.

"You are a very violent young woman." She stated.

"I'm serious, we could!"

"Well, there's nothing like that in here. Nuclear strikes do need a release code, yes, but it's kept secret by the United Nations." This caught the Doctors attention and he moved from the window to Harriet.

"Say that again." He demanded.

"What, about the codes?" She asked.

"Anything, all of it." He said.

"Um, well, the British Isles can't gain access to atomic weapons without a special resolution from the UN." Harriet explained.

"Like that's ever stopped them." Rose said.

"Exactly given our past record. And I voted against that, thank you very much. The code have been taken out of the government's hand and given to the UN." Harriet agreed.

"But now the UK's under attack. The whole world's on red alert." I said, catching on to what the Doctor was probably thinking. He got this brooding 'don't interrupt me, I'm doing something clever face' but before anyone could say anything a phone beeped.

"That's me, sorry." Rose said, pulling her phone out of her pocket.

"But we're sealed off. How did you get a signal?" Harriet asked.

"Fancy space mojo." I said before Rose could explain. She walked to the other side of the table and I could hear her phone beeping as she typed.

"Then we can phone for help. You must have contacts!" Harriet said excitedly.

"Dead downstairs, yeah." The Doctor said.

"It's Mickey." Rose said, her voice as dejected as the Doctor's.

"Is everything okay?" I said before the Doctor could make a mean comment.

"Not really." Rose said, walking over to the Doctor and showing him her phone. I went to his side and saw the face of another alien, which was crawling with electricity.

"Oh my god." I gasped. Rose pulled her phone back and called Mickey.

"You saw an alien?" Rose asked as soon as he picked up. She was silent for a second, then, "Is she alright though? Don't put her on, just tell me." The Doctor ran up and grabbed Rose's phone from her hand.

"Is that Ricky? Don't talk, just shut up and go to your computer." The Doctor told Mickey. Split second silence, "Mickey the Idiot, I might just choke before I finish this sentence, but, uh," he hesitated for a second, "I need you."

* * *

 _I really need to start writing this sooner so I actually update on Wednesday and not super early Thursday._

 _Thanks to bored 411 and jh831 for following and reviewing, nothing warms a writer's heart like seeing someone liked their story. So thank you very much! (I'm going to be disappointed if you don't review this chapter, bored. :) )_

 _Thanks to AquaRoseWaters, Pridia, and tigerwolfhorse for following, and thank you so much to bored411 and AquaRoseWaters for favoriting._

 _One last thanks to Wintersky101, cuz God knows I probably wouldn't have written this without her support._

 _If you guys get the chance, check out zenwisterias on tumblr. Taylor's OCs, Oliver and Nessa, inspired me to write the first chapter, strangely enough. Her original story is super cute and I really can't wait for it to be published._

 _Thanks again and I'll see you guys next Wednesday!_


	4. Chapter 2 Part 2

"I need you." Rose had this silly grin when the Doctor said that and I couldn't help but chuckle at them.

"Go to the UNIT website." The Doctor instructed, pointedly looking away from Rose. Instead, he turned to the table and connected Rose's phone to the speaker on it.

"Say that again." He said.

"It's asking for the password." Mickey's voice sounded a bit tinny but it came out pretty clear.

"Buffalo. Two Fs, one L." The Doctor and Rose were leaning on the table, with Harriet pouring some of the alcohol into four glasses at the end of the table. I sat down near them and pulled out my phone, idly checking my emails.

"So what's that website?" I faintly heard Jackie ask Mickey.

"All the secret information known to mankind. See, they've known about aliens for years. They just kept us in the dark." Mickey said conspiratorially. I rolled my eyes and set my phone on the table.

"Mickey, you were born in the dark." The Doctor said with the hint of irritation that was ever present when Mickey was involved.

"Oh, leave him alone." Rose scolded.

"Thank you." Mickey said, a bit smugly. I rolled my eyes again

"Password again." Mickey said to the Doctor.

"Just repeat it every time." The Doctor said. Harriet handed Rose and I glasses as the Doctor paced around the table.

"Big Ben. Why'd the Slitheen go and hit Big Ben?" The Doctor questioned.

"Attention." I muttered into my glass before taking a sip.

"You said to gather the experts, to kill them." Harriet said, walking toward the Doctor with a third glass.

"That lot would have gathered for a weather balloon. You don't need to crash land it in the middle of London." The Doctor dismissed.

"The Slitheen are hiding, but then they put the whole world on red alert. What did they do that for?" Rose said, thinking out loud.

"Oh, listen to her." Jackie commented.

"Oi! At least I'm trying." Rose shot back.

"Well I've got a question, if you don't mind." Jackie said this like she would ask her question even if we did mind.

"Ever since that man walked into our lives, I've been attacked in the streets, I've had creatures from the pits of hell in my own living room, and my daughter disappear of the face of the earth." Jackie said angrily.

"I told you what happened." Rose tried to explain.

"I talking to him." Jackie snapped, "'Cause I've seen this life of yours, Doctor, and maybe you get off on it, and maybe you think it's all clever and smart, but you tell me, just answer me this, is my daughter safe?" Jackie's voice had that worried mother quality that made me think about what would happen if my mom met the Doctor. It probably wouldn't go well.

"I'm fine." Rose insisted. The Doctor, however, had this dark expression of his face, like he was being faced with his own mortality. It was actually giving me second thoughts about being here right now.

"Is she safe? Will she always be safe, can you promise me that?" Jackie persisted. The Doctor looked deeply at Rose but stayed silent.

"Well? What's the answer?" Jackie demanded. The Doctor only watched Rose. A brief spurt of static can over the speaker before Mickey's voice came through.

"We're in."

The Doctor sprung into action immediately, "Now, then. On the left, at the top, there's a tab, an icon, little concentric circles, click on that." He demanded.

"What is it?" Mickey asked as a burbling noise filled the background.

"The Slitheen have a space ship in the North Sea," The Doctor explained, "and it's transmitting that signal. Now, hush, and let me work out what it's saying." The Doctor leaned on the table toward the speaker and listened intently. I could hear Mickey and Jackie squabble briefly, before Mickey hushed her.

"It's some sort of message." The Doctor mused.

"What's it say?" Rose asked.

"Don't know, it's on a loop, keeps repeating." The Doctor said. A buzzing noise covered up the message and the Doctor hushed it.

"It's not me!" Mickey defended., "Go and see who it is." He said to Jackie.

"It's 3 o'clock in the morning." Jackie said.

"Well, go and..." Mickey's voice faded out, but the buzzing stayed steady.

"It's beaming out into space, who's it for?" The Doctor asked. None of us hand an answer. The buzzing stopped, and was replaced by a squeal. I faintly heard Jackie say something, and then Mickey said, "They found us."

"Mickey, I need that signal." The Doctor said.

"Never mind the signal. Get out! Mum, just get out! Get out!" Rose called to her mother.

"We can't, it's by the front door." Mickey said. Tense silence for a second, and then, "Oh my god. It's unmasking. It's gonna kill us."

"There's got to be some way to stop them! You're supposed to be the expert! Think of something!" Harriet demanded.

"I'm trying!" The Doctor snapped back, pushing off the table to pace again.

"Yelling doesn't help." I shot at Harriet with a glare.

"I'll take it on, Jackie. You just run. Don't look back. Just run." Mickey said. There was a crunching noise over the speaker and I flinched.

"That's my mother." Rose murmured to the Doctor, who paused. I gave her a look of sympathy and sighed.

"Right. If we're gonna find their weakness, we need to find out where they're from, which planet. So, judging from their general shape, that narrows it down into 5,000 planets within traveling distance. What else do we know about them? Information!" The Doctor said.

"They're green." Rose said.

"Yep, narrows it down."

"Good sense of smell."

"Narrows it down."

"They can smell adrenaline."

"Narrows it down."

"The pig technology." Harriet jumped in.

"Narrows it down."

"Their planet has low gravity." I said.

"Narrows it down."

"Space ship in the Thames. You said 'slipstream engine'."

"Narrows it down." More crunching from the phone, this time with alien squealing.

"It's getting in." Mickey warned.

"They hunt like it's a ritual." Rose says desperately.

"Narrows it down."

"Wait a minute. When they fart, if you'll pardon the word, it doesn't just smell like a fart, if you'll pardon the word. It's something else. What is it? It's more like, um..." Harriet trailed off, looking at Rose and I for help.

"Bad breath?" I offer.

"That's it!" Harriet cheered.

" Calcium decay! Now that narrows it down." The Doctor said almost happily.

"We're getting there, mum!" Rose said.

"Too late!" Mickey yelled back as something roared.

"Calcium phosphate. Organic calcium. Living Calcium. Creatures made of living calcium. What else? What else? Hyphenate surname! Yes! That narrows it down to one planet! Raxacoricofallapatorius!" The Doctor cheered. I gave him a blank look.

"I'd hate to be a kindergartner on that planet." I said.

"Oh, yeah, great, we can right them a letter." Mickey said sarcastically.

"Get into the kitchen." The Doctor commanded cheerfully.

"Calcium, weakened by the compression field. Acetic acid! Vinegar!" The Doctor said.

"Just like Hannibal!" Harriet said.

"Just like Hannibal!" The Doctor repeated with a grin before turning back to the speaker, "Mickey, have you got any vinegar?"

"How should I know?" Mickey asked.

"It's your kitchen." The Doctor pointed out.

"That means nothing." I told the Doctor. He gave me a strange look as Rose said, "Cupboard by the sink, middle shelf."

"Oh give it here. What do you need?" Jackie said.

"Anything with vinegar." The Doctor told her.

"Gherkins!" Jackie said over another roar, "Yeah, pickled onions! Picked eggs!"

"That's disgusting." I commented, my nose wrinkled.

"You kiss this man?" The Doctor asked with a glance at Rose. There was a final crunch of the door breaking, then the alien screeching. It was followed by a hiss, and then a loud fart, with a gross sounding splatter to finish it off. We all sighed in relief when we realized what the splatter had meant.

"Hannibal?" Rose asked.

"Hannibal crossed the Alps-" Harriet started.

"By dissolving boulders with vinegar." She and I finished together. I grinned widely at her and the Doctor.

"That was brilliant." I told him. He grinned back at me. We all raised a glass in cheer to a battle won, and I drained my glass. The Doctor took a sip and immediately spit it back into the glass. Jackie came back on the phone and spoke urgently to Rose, but I'd focused on my phone. In all the ruckus with the Slitheen in Mickey's apartment, I'd missed a text message. _Grandpa Tim is in the hospital._ The message from my mom said. I texted back _What's wrong?_ and put my phone back in my pocket.

"Listen to this!" Mickey said, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"...-spectors have searched the sky above our heads." A disguised Slitheen was saying, "And they may have found massive weapons of destruction capable of being deployed within 45 seconds."

"That's bullshit." I said before being hushed. Harriet gave me a slightly scandalized look, which I ignored.

"Our technicians can baffle the alien probes, but not for long. We are facing extinction unless we strike first! The United Kingdom stands directly underneath the belly of the mothership. I beg of the United Nations. Pass an emergency resolution. Give us the access codes. A nuclear strike at the heart of the beast is our only chance of survival, because, from this moment on, it is my solemn duty to inform you planet Earth is at war." He concluded.

"That is such BULLSHIT." I yelled, slamming my hands on the table and standing up.

"He's making it up. There's no weapons up there. There's no threat. He invented it." The Doctor said.

"Do you think they'll believe him?" Harriet asked.

"Well, he did last time." Rose said.

"That's why the Slitheen went for a spectacle. They want the whole world panicking 'cause you lot, you get scared, you lash out." The Doctor said darkly, crossing the room. Rose, Harriet, and I followed him.

"They release the defense codes..." Rose started.

"And the Slitheen go nuclear." The Doctor finished.

"But why?" Harriet asked. Instead of answering, the Doctor hit the button to open the doors and windows.

"You get the codes, release the missiles. But not into space, 'cause there's nothing there. You attack every other country on Earth, they retaliate, fight back. World War 3. Whole planet gets nuked." The Doctor says to the Slitheen assembled outside the door. As he's talking, the woman who'd cornered us earlier slipped through them to stand in front of us.

"And we sit through it, safe in our space ship waiting in the Thames. Not crashed, just parked. Barely two minutes away." She said with a smirk.

"But you'll destroy the planet. This beautiful place. What for?" Harriet asked.

"Profit. That's what the signal is, beaming into space. An advert" The Doctor answered, glowering at the Slitheen in front of us.

"Sale of the century. We reduce the Earth of molten slag, then sell it. Piece by piece. Radioactive chunks capable of powering every cut-price starliner and budget cargo ship" The disguised Slitheen said, still smirking.

"Called it." I muttered to no one.

"There's a recession out there, Doctor. People are buying cheap. This rock becomes raw fuel." She continued

"At the cost of 5 billion lives." The Doctor said darkly.

"6 and a half." I corrected, glaring at the Slitheen.

"Hmm. Bargain." She said.

"I give you a choice. Leave this planet, or I'll stop you." The Doctor said. His tone of voice gave me the feeling his stopping them would result in violence. The Slitheen all giggled at the threat, as if they didn't realized the gravity of the situation.

"What, you?" The woman said, the smile slipping off her face, "Trapped in your box?"

"Yes. Me." The Doctor and the woman glared at each other. She started laughing again and the Doctor reached over and shut the steel doors.

"Fucking she-demon."

* * *

"Alright, Doctor. I'm not saying I trust you, but there must be something you can do." Jackie said. The Doctor didn't respond, just leaned against the wall with his dark expression firmly in place.

"If we could ferment the port, we could make acetic acid." Harriet suggested. No response.

"Mickey, any luck?" Rose asked, leaning on the table to get closer to the speaker.

"There's loads of emergency numbers. They're all on voicemail." Mickey replied. Rose sighed and pushed away from the table.

"Voicemail dooms us all." Harriet said, moving the port to the side table it originated from.

"If we could just get out of here." Rose groaned.

"There's a way out." The Doctor said.

"What?" Rose said, turning toward the Doctor.

"There's always been a way out." He said.

"Then why don't we use it?" Rose asked.

"Because I can't guarantee your daughter's safety." The Doctor said to Jackie.

"Don't you dare! Whatever it is, don't you dare!" Jackie yelled at him.

"That's the thing; if I don't dare, everyone dies." He said, leaning on the table with the saddest expression I'd every seen on his face.

"Do it." Rose said, standing across from him.

"You don't even know what it is. You'd just let me?" He asked.

"Yeah." She said. The Doctor looked at her silently while Jackie pleaded, "Please, Doctor, please! She's my daughter, she's just a kid." He looked over at me and I gave him a tiny smile.

"I'm all in." I told him. He sighed and looked at the speaker, as if he could make eye contact with Jackie through the small device.

"You think I don't know that? Cause this is my life, Jackie. It's not fun, it's not smart. It's just standing up and making a decision because nobody else will." He said to her.

"Then what are you waiting for?" Rose asked. He looked at her helplessly.

"I could save the world but lose you." He answered. Rose and The Doctor were silent, him waiting and her almost thinking, trying to find some way around what was going to happen, whether she wanted it or not.

"Except it's not your decision, Doctor. It's mine." Harriet said from the end of the table.

"And who the hell are you?" Jackie demanded.

"Harriet Jones. MP for Flydale North. The only _elected_ representative in this room chosen by the people for the people. And on behalf of the people, I command you. Do it." Harriet said, looking at the Doctor while she spoke. The Doctor looked at Rose and grinned.

"Alright." He said, reaching across the table for the red briefcase in front of Rose.

"So how do we get out?" She asked, sitting on the table.

"We don't." He answered, opening up the case. He leafed through some papers before turning back to the speaker.

"Use the buffalo password, it overrides everything." The Doctor told Mickey. Jackie said something to Mickey, too far away for the phone to pick up clearly, to which Mickey replied, "Hacking in to the Royal Navy." I could hear him breathing a bit heavily as I wondered if I'd missed something, which did happen occasionally, before he addressed us, "We're in. Here it is, uh, HMS Taurean, Trafalgar Class submarine, ten miles off the coast of Plymouth."

"Right, we need to select a missile." The Doctor told him.

"We can't go nuclear, we don't have the defense codes." Mickey said.

"We don't need it. All we need is an ordinary missile. What's the first category?" The Doctor said. He glanced at me and I gave him a confused expression. _What the hell do we need a missile for?_ I thought worriedly.

"Sub-harpoon UMG-84A." Mickey read off.

"That's the one. Select!" The Doctor ordered. Jackie said something again, and Mickey's response was a barely too quiet for me to understand it.

"You ready for this?" The Doctor asked. Mickey was silent for a few seconds before saying, "Yeah." The Doctor straightened up and said, with a strange sense of foreboding, "Mickey the idiot, the world is in your hands. Fire." There was only more silence as Mickey fired the rocket. I realized right after he did it that the missile was probably headed for us. Damn it.

"How solid are these?" Harriet asked, moving to inspect one of the metal doors.

"Not solid enough. Built for short-range attack, nothing this big." The Doctor said, not moving except to glance at Harriet.

"Alright, now I'm making the decision." Rose said, hopping off of the table, "I'm not going to die, we're gonna ride this out." She walked over to the closet we'd put Indra in and looked around the door frame.

"It's like what they said about earthquakes." She continued, grabbing the door handle.

"Stand in a doorway." I said with a grin.

"Exactly." She said, smiling back and opening the door. "Now, this cupboard's small, so it's strong." She went into the closet and turned back to us, "Come and help me, come on!" Harriet and I rushed over to help her clear out the closet. Harriet passed Rose and I things from the shelves, which we set on tables. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Mickey were doing what was probably super important world saving stuff. Rose carefully stacked the stuff on the table, while I just haphazardly threw them down. Except for the books, of course. You could never be too careful with books.

An alarm went off outside of the room, the ringing a bit muffled through the steel of the doors. I gave them a worried glance but didn't slow down. When the room was empty, the four of us crawled underneath the lowest row of shelves, with me squished into the corner and the Doctor and Rose on either side of me.

"Nice knowing all of you." Harriet said as she squeezed in on the Doctor's other side.

"Likewise." I said, grabbing onto the Doctor's offered hand and holding my other one out to Rose.

"Hannibal!" Harriet said as Rose took my hand. I held onto those hands for dear life as I closed my eyes and buried my face in my knees. I let out a small shriek as the missile hit and the room started violently shaking. Loose papers flew around and I found myself praying we made it out alive. Someone was gasping and suddenly we were air born. The Doctor and Rose's hands were torn out of mine as I was thrown into a wall and then the shelves, which knocked the air out of me. I hit the floor and just lay there, trying to catch my breath. After what seemed like ages I registered someone saying my name. I looked up and the Doctor stood over me, offering me his hand. I took it and he helped me up.

"That..." I said shakily, "was _fucking awful_." He laughed and let go of my hand, leading us all toward the door. It fell out of its frame easily and I took in the destruction around us. There was wood and metal debris everywhere.

"Made in Britain." Harriet declared proudly. A man in a black police riot uniform rushed over to help us.

"Oh my god. Are you alright?" He asked, stopping a few feet from us.

"Harriet Jones, MP, Flydale North." Harriet flashed her ID at him and I marveled at the fact she'd managed to keep hold of it this long, "I want you to contact the UN immediately. Tell the ambassadors the crisis is over. They can step down." The officer just gaped at us.

"Go on. Tell the news." She insisted.

"Yes, ma'am." The officer said before running off.

"Someone's got a hell of a job sorting this lot out. Oh Lord! We don't even have a Prime Minister!" She said.

"You seem perfect for the job." I said.

"Why don't you have a go?" The Doctor agreed.

"Me! I'm only a backbencher." Harriet said with a self-depreciating laugh.

"I'd vote for ya." Rose said.

"I would, too, except I'm American." I said.

"Now, don't be silly. Look, I'd better go and see if I can help." Harriet, turning and carefully climbing over the rubble.

"Hang on!" She called as emergency sirens rang out.

"We're safe! The Earth is safe!" Harriet yelled out to anyone who was listening. We followed her out. Rose almost twisted an ankle and at one point I slid and got a couple of splinters in my hand, but we were otherwise unharmed, though our bruised ribs would tell you otherwise.

"I thought I knew the name." The Doctor said as we walked between two cop cars.

"Harriet Jones, Prime Minister following the unfortunate death of Tony Blair." I said with a small grin.

"Elected for three consecutive terms. The architect of Britain's Golden Age." The Doctor added. We all watched as she walked toward a group of news people, calling out that the danger had passes or something. We made our way back to Rose's apartment, after dropping the Doctor off at the TARDIS, and her mom grabbed Rose for a hug the second we set foot inside. She pulled me in for one next and held on tightly. Eventually she released me and hugged Rose again before having us sit down and making tea. Rose turned on the TV, which was playing a Harriet Jones interview.

"Harriet Jones. Who does she think she is?" Jackie complained, "Look at her, taking all the credit. It should be you on there. My daughter saved the world." She scolded the TV.

"Technically, Mickey did." I said.

"The Doctor was there, too." Rose added.

"Alright, then. Them, too." Jackie flopped down into the other chair. "You should be given knighthoods."

"It's not the way he does things. No fuss, he just moves on. He's not that bad if you gave him a chance." Rose said, turning from the TV to her mother.

"He's good in a crisis, I'll give him that." Jackie admitted.

"Oh! Now the world has changed. You're saying nice things about him." Rose said.

"I reckon I've got no choice. There's no getting rid of him since you're infatuated." Jackie said, not looking at Rose. I let out a snort and heave myself up off the couch.

"I think I'll tell him he's got your approval." I said with a touch of humor as I slip past Jackie and down the hall. I could hear Rose objecting and I let out a small laugh as I left the apartment. I wandered down the stairs to the TARDIS, idly watching the sky and the clouds and wondering if the Doctor had any food on board. The measly snacks I'd had at Jackie's weren't very filling and I felt as if I could eat a large dog. I stepped inside the TARDIS and saw the Doctor was on the phone.

"Right, I'll be a couple of hours then we can get going." He was saying. "You think I can travel through space and time and I haven't got a phone? Huh! Like I said, a couple of hours." I snorted and leaned against the console.

"I've just got to send out this dispersal." He said into the handset, leaning over the screen. Upon further inspection (I stood up and walked over to it), I discovered various lines. Hit hit a button and they disappeared.

"That's canceling out the Slitheen's advert in case any bargain hunters turn up." He explained.

"Lame." I complained, drawing out the a. He waved me off.

"Good. Put her on a low heat and let her simmer." The Doctor said jokingly. His joking attitude slipped away at whatever his conversation partner said next.

"I don't do that." He objected.

"Tough. I've got better things to do."

"Stop being mean." I said, lightly tossing a gum wrapper I found in my pocket at him. He waved me off again.

"Not to me, it isn't." He told the other person, who at this point I figured was probably Rose. I sighed and walked pass him into one of the hallways that branched off of the console rooms.

"Alright, chickadee, where's the kitchen?" I murmured to myself as I wandered down the hall, running my hand along the wall. A gentle hum flowed through me as I approached a door. I opened it and saw a library. Closer inspection showed a swimming pool smack dab in the middle of it.

"That's not good for the books." I noted out loud before shutting the door. Across the hall was another door, which led to an empty bed room. I noticed my purse was sitting on a dresser with a mirror mounted onto the back. Across from it, on my left, was a plain wooden bed frame with a bare mattress on it. A quick glance confirmed this was an unused bedroom and I flopped onto the mattress. I blinked and suddenly the Doctor was standing over me. I flinched and nearly kicked him.

"Have a nice nap?" He asked.

"Um, yes? Sorry, I was looking for the kitchen and..." I trailed off and sat up. He leaned against the wall by the door and looked around the room.

"I think this is supposed to be your room. If you want, I mean." He said, not looking at me.

"Are you trying to ask me to stay for a while?" I said with a smirk.

"If you'd like." He replied.

"Oh, I guess." I said dramatically, looking around the room again. "Needs a bit of work, though. A coat of paint, some sheets, and maybe a book case or two." I looked at him and grinned.

"Good. Now, we're just waiting on Rose, then we're going to the Horsehead Nebula. There's a plasma storm brewing and I'm going to fly the TARDIS into the heart of it and ride the shock waves out." He said with a grin. I stand up and stretch, popping a couple bones in my back.

"Sounds like a good time. Where to after that?" I said, rotating my arms to pop my elbows.

"Any where." He said. I grin at him again.

"Then let's go."

* * *

 _Sorry about the late update, guys. I was getting ready to drive from Northern Colorado to Eastern Texas, which was a 15 hour drive. I actually had about half of this written the Saturday before I was supposed to update, because I wanted to update on Sunday as a treat. That, obviously, didn't end up happening. I am giving you guys two updates instead of one as an apology, though. And I'll do my best to not split the next chapter up. That does mean I'll have to cut some stuff out, though. (Fun fact: this is actually my longest chapter at about 8 pages. My second longest, chapter 1 part 2, is about 7.) I hope you guys had a nice week and I'll see you tomorrow!_

 _Thanks again to bored and Winter for reviewing. Like I said, nothing makes an author happier than reviews. :)_


	5. Chapter 3 Part 1

It was a couple weeks after the Doctor dropped me off at home before I saw him again. Long enough for the bruised stripes on my back to turn green-yellow. I got to know my coworkers at my new job and tried to seem like I wasn't eagerly waiting on a text message from someone a decade in the past. I also did my best to not research Rose or The Doctor. I did fail once, one night about a week after we'd met. I found a few small things, a picture here, an anecdote there, but nothing too concrete. I kept an eye out for that blue box, but no dice. Not until I got a phone call.

"Yo." I greeted, phone wedged between my head and shoulder so my hands were both free to kill raiders in Fallout.

"We're going to the future. You want to come?" Rose asked me. I paused the game and grabbed my phone with my right hand.

"Hell yeah. When are you guys going to be here? Where am I meeting you?" I said excitedly.

"Same place as last time, about two minutes ago." Rose answered as I saved my game.

"Give me two seconds and I'll be there." I said before hanging up. I pulled on my favorite red Toms and sent a quick text to my mom so she'd know where I was.

"I'm going out for a walk, I'll see you when I get home." I told my brother in a rush before running out the door. I shot down the sidewalk, to the path where I'd first met the Doctor. I was panting a bit when I reached the TARDIS, damn mountain air, and I grinned when I saw it.

"It's about damn time!" I yelled as I walked in. I stopped upon seeing a new guy standing awkwardly near the TARDIS.

"Who the fuck are you?" I asked.

"Angela, this is Adam. We met him in Utah." Rose explained.

"When?" I asked, walking around the center console to her.

"Just now, in 2012." She said.

"Oh." I said to her before turning to the Doctor, who I'd passed to see Rose.

"I bet you're just loving him." I said sarcastically.

"Absolutely." He answered before giving me a quick hug. Both the Doctor and Rose learned quickly how affectionate I could be when I wanted to.

"So where to?" I asked, leaning my elbows on the console.

"Not sure. I figured I'd let the TARDIS pick our destination." He said, hitting a button and pulling a lever. The TARDIS jerked and I grabbed onto the console to avoid being knocked off my feet. Adam apparently hadn't learned to keep a hold of something at all times yet, because I faintly heard him hit the ground over the sounds of the TARDIS engine. When the TARDIS parked, I went over to help him up.

"You okay?" I asked, offering my hand. He grabbed it and pulled himself up with a muttered thanks.

"You learn to hold onto something eventually. Take offs are always rough, especially when you've got a concussion." I joked. Adam gave me a strange look, like he wanted an explanation but was scared to ask.

"I crashed into the TARDIS on my bike. I wasn't wearing a helmet. Stupid decision, but one I'm glad I made." I explained.

"Adam! Out you come." Rose called, poking her head into the TARDIS. I hadn't even noticed she and the Doctor had left. He immediately walked to her side.

"Oh, my god." He exclaimed as he left the TARDIS I giggled and shut the door after me, locking it with the key I got before I left.

"Don't worry, you get used to it." Rose comforted him.

"Where are we?" Adam asked, looking around in wonder. The Doctor and I watched him with amusement.

"Is it always like this when they first travel?" I asked him.

"Usually, yeah." He answered.

"Judging by the architecture, I'd say we're around the year 200,000." Rose bullshitted. Adam nodded and made noises of agreement, though I don't think he was actually listening to her.

"If you listen, engines. We're on some sort of space station. Yeah, definitely a space station." She continued. I giggled quietly at Adam. I hadn't really had the chance to be amazed like he was, traveling for the first time. Every place had it's own excitement to it, but it was never like the first time. We trailed after Rose and Adam through a gate and up some stairs to a viewing platform.

"Oh, wow." I gasped, stepping closer to the thick glass window. The room had an amazing view of Earth.

"The Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. And there it is. Planet Earth, at it's height. Covered in mega-cities, five moons, population 96 billion. The hub of a galactic domain stretching across a million planets, a million species, with mankind right in the middle." The Doctor said, snapping me out of my reverie. Adam's response was a bit more dramatic. He was overwhelmed and fainted.

"He's your boyfriend." The Doctor said to Rose, not looking away from Earth.

"Not anymore." Rose said, similarly engrossed with the planet.

"And neither of you are picking him up." I noted.

* * *

The Doctor led our small group out of the viewing platform once we got Adam up and on his feet, talking about fine food and culture and what not. I was more focused on the lack of culture around us as we walked to a thorough way.

"Out of the way!" A man snapped at us as the area burst into life. Vendors opened up and people started streaming from unseen areas. Rose inspected the nearest food vendor's wares and turned back to us.

"Fine cuisine?" She asked the Doctor.

"My watch must be wrong." He said, checking it, "No, it's fine. That's weird." He looked back up at Rose with a confused expression.

"That's what comes of showing off. Your history's not as good as you thought it was." Rose teased.

"My history is perfect." The Doctor objected.

"Obviously not. Everyone's human." I said, a bit disappointed.

"You said millions on planets, millions of races. Where are they?" Adam asked.

"Adam, me old mate, you must be starving!" The Doctor said suddenly, throwing his arm around Adam.

"No, I'm just a bit timesick." Adam objected.

"Bet way to settle that is with good food." I assured him, patting his back before turning to the nearest vendor, who advertised kronkburgers.

"How much?" I asked with a grin.

"Two credits twenty, sweetheart. Now, join the queue." The man said, waving me to the back of the line.

"Money! We need money. Let's use a cash point." The Doctor said, walking around the cart to an atm and pulling out his sonic screwdriver. He soniced the screen and the machine beeped before issuing a thin strip of metal, which the Doctor handed to Adam.

"There you go, pocket money. Don't spend it all on sweets." He said before turning and walking away.

"How does it work?" Adam asked, inspecting it.

"Go find out! Time travel's like visiting Paris. You can't just read the guidebook, you gotta throw yourself in. Eat the food, use the wrong verbs, get charged double and end up kissing complete strangers. Or is that just me?" The Doctor said. Rose and I laughed and Adam, the poor dear, just looked more confused. He continued on, "Stop asking questions, go and do it." He waved them off.

"Off you go, then. Your first date!"

"You're going to get a smack, you are!" Rose said with a laugh. His grin fell as Rose walked away and he immediately approached two women who were walking nearby.

"Um, this is going to sound daft, but can you tell us where we are?" He asked them.

"Floor 139." One of them said, pointing at the wall that said 139 in giant numbers.

"Could they write it any bigger?" She commented.

"Floor 139 of what?" I asked.

"Must have a hell of a party." She said, seeming a bit surprised, like she hadn't noticed me.

"You're on Satellite 5." The other woman said helpfully.

"What's Satellite 5?" The Doctor asked.

"How could you get on board without knowing where you are?" The first woman asked, her suspicion in us growing.

"Look at me, I'm stupid!" The Doctor said with a grin.

"Hold on, are you a test? Some sort of management test kind of thing?" The second woman said.

"You've got me. Well done, you're too clever for me." The Doctor said, pulling a leather wallet out of his pocket and showing it to the two women. I couldn't see anything on it, but they could apparently.

"We were warned about this in basic training. All workers have to be versed in company promotion." The second woman said, looking at the first.

"Right. Fire away, ask your questions. If it gets me to floor 500, I'll do anything?" The first woman said, tossing her braids over her shoulder.

"Floor 500?" I asked.

"The walls are made of gold. You should know that, Ms. Management." She said.

"I'm still in training." I told her before giving the Doctor a worried look. That didn't seem good.

"This is what we do!" The first woman said, guiding us around. The second one smiled at the Doctor and followed. The first one led us over to a wall of screens, which played various news channels.

"You broadcast the news." The Doctor said, looking from screen to screen. The one I focused on said something about a creature called the Face of Boe being pregnant.

"We are the news. We're the journalists. We write it, package it, and sell it. 600 channels, all coming out of Satellite 5, broadcasting everywhere." She explained. I let out a low whistle and let how impressed I was show.

"Nothing happens in the universe without it going through us." She continued. I blinked at got a brief glimpse of an icy room with a pale, frostbitten man standing over another man, who was seated in front of what looked like a security feed, which showed the four of us talking.

"Go deep." The pale man was saying to the man sitting in the chair. I blinked again and I was back where I was before. The Doctor was calling Rose and Adam over and the second woman was looking at me with concern.

"You okay? You zoned out a bit there." She said.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I said, waving her off. She seemed a bit nervous, but I'm sure I did too. The other woman, the first one, led us off to one of the rooms where they did their work. Most of the team was already assembled. The second woman took her seat and the first one entered the circle they sat around.

"Now, everyone behave. We have a management inspection." She said, turning to smile at the Doctor, "How'd you want it? By the book?" She asked him.

"Right from scratch, thanks." He said with a tight smile.

"Okay, so, ladies, gentlemen, multisex, undecided, or robot, my name is Cathica Santini Khadeni. That's Cathica with a C, in case you want to write to floor 500, praising me, and please do." She said to the Doctor. He nodded and she continued on, "The process of news gathering must be open, honest, and beyond bias. That's company policy." Cathica smile at the Doctor again.

"Um, actually it's the law." The other woman corrected.

"Yes, thank you, Suki." Cathica snapped and Suki seemed to shrink.

"Okay, keep it calm. Don't show off for the guest." Cathica continued, sitting in the chair in the middle. It reminded me of a dentist's office chair, only it was black instead of the cooler colors I was familiar with.

"Engage safety." Cathica said and everyone held their hands over hand print shaped plated in front of them. The walls around us flashed on. Cathica snapped and her forehead opened up, revealing her brain. Rose and Adam leaned in to get a better look and I stepped back, resisting the urge to retch. Everyone placed their hands onto the plates and Cathica started counting down.

"Three... Two... And spike." A beam of light flowed from a machine in the middle of the ceiling into her head.

"Compressed information streaming into her. Reports from every city, every country, every planet, and they all get packaged inside her head. She becomes part of the software. Her brain is the computer!" The Doctor explained to us.

"That's disgusting." I said, pressing my wrist against my mouth.

"If it all goes through her, she must be a genius." Rose commented.

"Nah, she won't remember it. There's too much, her head would burn up. The brain's the processor. Soon as it closes, she forgets." The Doctor explained, walking around the room. Rose followed him.

"So what's with all the other people?" I ask, leaning against the railing in front of me.

"They've all got tiny little chips in their head connecting them to her and they transmit 600 channels. Every single fact in the Empire beams out of this place. Now that's what I call power." The Doctor answered, coming to a stop in front of me, not taking his eyes of Cathica.

"You alright?" Rose asked Adam.

"I can see her brain." Adam said as a answer.

"Do you wanna get out?"

"No, but this... This technology, it's amazing."

"This technology's wrong." The Doctor said idly, looking up at the machine.

"Trouble?" Rose asked. The Doctor looked at her.

"Oh, yeah."

* * *

"Cathica, I'm going to miss you. Floor 500. Thank you." Suki said as we stood around the elevator.

"I didn't do anything." The Doctor insisted.

"You're my lucky charm." Suki said with a laugh.

"Alright, I'll hug anyone." The Doctor said, wrapping her up in a hug. Suki laughed more. Rose stepped away to talk to Adam and I stepped closer to Cathica.

"Why'd you come if you're going to be so pissy?" I asked. She sighed and turned toward me, away from Suki and the Doctor.

"She's still my friend." She said with a shrug. I raised an eyebrow but accepted her answer.

"If that's what helps you sleep at night." I said before stepping away, toward Rose and Adam.

"It's going to take a better man than me to get between you two." Adam was saying. There was a brief awkward silence then Adam stood up.

"Anyway, I'll be on the deck." Adam said.

"Here you go, take the TARDIS key. Just in case it gets a bit too much." Rose said, digging the key out of her pocket.

"Yeah, like it's not weird in there." He joked. She handed him the key and he held it up in thanks before walking off.

"Well, that didn't seem awkward at all." I said sarcastically as Rose and I rejoined the others.

"Oh my god, I've got to go, I can't keep them waiting." Suki said right when we arrived. She hurriedly grabbed her bag, calling out an apology as she ran into the waiting elevator.

"Say good bye to Steve for me." She called to Cathica. She said her final goodbye and the door shut. The Doctor and Rose waved while Cathica muttered, "Good riddance."

"You're talking like you'll never see her again. She's only going upstairs." The Doctor said as she crossed her arms.

"We won't. Once you go to floor 500, you never come back." Cathica said.

"Haven't you ever been up there?" The Doctor asked as we walked away from the elevator.

"I can't. You need a key for the lift and you only get a key with promotion. No one gets to 500 except for the chosen few."

* * *

 _If my fanfiction chapters are this long, I can't help but wonder about the size of the scripts. I did try to do the entire chapter, but I'm only 19 minutes in and this in 2.5k words. Therefore you get the rest next week._

 _Thanks to MajesticSkittles and Winter for reviewing, it really made my day to wake up and see the emails._

 _Also, let me tell you about something great. I don't know if you guys know this, but there's a fanfiction app for android phones and it is so cool to use. It takes a second to figure out, but I love it. Reviewing and favoriting are so easy. I recommend you download it if you can. Eventually I'm going to make a tumblr post screaming about it's virtues, but that'll be at a later date. I'll let you guys know when I do. If you want to follow me, I'm grapeflavoredsoul._

 _I'll see you guys next week!_


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